Changes in state assessments leave 1 constant: lots of tests

Even as major changes loom, Florida students can bet they’ll still rack up plenty of testing time as part of an assessment program.

By Annie Martinannie.martin@news-jrnl.com

If you want to graduate from a Florida high school, you first must conquer head-scratchers like “The Enigma of the Echidna.”The four-page passage, which describes the mammal that “has a beak like a bird, spines like a hedgehog, eggs like a reptile, the pouch of a marsupial and the lifespan of an elephant,” is an example of what high school students encounter on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Biologist Peggy Rismiller, according to the passage, is “obsessed” with the echidna. Few teenagers likely share her passion.Yet even as major changes loom, Florida students can bet they’ll still rack up plenty of testing time as part of an assessment program critics say borders on obsessive, with too much time sitting through or preparing for standardized test questions like those about the spiny anteater.Mella Baxter’s students are all-too-familiar with long, boring passages that would make many teenagers — and adults — yawn. Baxter, a Flagler Palm Coast High School teacher, works with 11th- and 12th-graders who must retake the FCAT because they didn’t meet the minimum score required to graduate when they took the test the first time. The echidna saga is among a handful of sample 10th-grade FCAT passages included on the Florida Department of Education’s website. The animal’s spines can puncture a tire, according to the article, and students might feel deflated after they answer eight multiple-choice questions about the material. For those students, there’s good news: This school year marks the last time most students will take the FCAT. After more than 15 years, the state will retire the test in favor of one based on the Common Core State Standards, though it’s not clear which test students will take next year. Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that Florida is pulling out of the 19-state consortium developing high-stakes tests that would measure the new standards. Pulling out of the group after three years “leads to some confusion about where we’re going,” Flagler County School Board Member Colleen Conklin said. If Florida develops its own exam, she said, it will be difficult to compare students here to their peers in other states. “I know a lot of people are very excited that (the 19-state consortium) went away, but the bottom line is, that puts us in a position that’s very challenging,” Conklin said.FCAT isn’t the only test required in Florida now. Middle and high school students also take end-of-course exams in certain subject areas like algebra, geometry and biology. In addition, Florida students take shorter assessments in subject areas covered by the FCAT and end-of-course exams a few times per year. Students who are weary from hours of standardized tests during their school careers should know it’s unlikely that the switch to Common Core will offer any relief. They could even spend more time sitting through tests, said Chris Colwell, director of undergraduate teacher education at Stetson University in DeLand. Excessive testing is “a fairly serious problem,” he said, in Florida and throughout the country. “I think the pendulum is still swinging the wrong way on this issue,” said Colwell, a former administrator for Volusia County schools. Students probably will spend even more time testing, he said, because their teachers’ evaluations are tied to their performance. Starting next school year, evaluations will determine which teachers qualify for merit pay raises. Some testing is necessary, Colwell said, but Florida schools devote too many resources — including instructional time, money, facilities and technology — to assessment.“It’s a question of balance,” Colwell said. “I think we’ve become so enamored with measuring standards that we’re not leaving sufficient time to teach the standard.”Conklin agreed Florida schools “completely over-assess our students.” The political powers-that-be appear to equate accountability with assessment, she said, and they tend to favor a standardized tests over portfolios or other measures. “The purpose of assessment is to identify for strengths and weaknesses and the skills and aptitude of the student and then it should be used to direct instruction,” she said. “Now, many times, we do in the district use that information to direct instruction. However, assessment in this state has, in my opinion, been taken and completely abused.”But local testing coordinators say assessments allow teachers to tailor their instruction to fit students’ needs. You wouldn’t drive with your eyes shut, or drive tens of thousands of miles without taking your car to the shop, Alicia Parker frequently tells naysayers, and schools need to test students to find out how they’re doing. Teachers assess their students on a daily basis, whether asking them to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to show whether they understand a lesson or giving out a final exam.“We take some time out every so often to do that 60,000-mile check-up on our students,” said Parker, Volusia County’s assistant director for program accountability. Flagler staff members considered creating T-shirts that read “Not in November” in response to claims they test students year-around, Shawn Schmidli quipped during a recent School Board meeting. The month of Thanksgiving is the only one in the calendar when students can be grateful there aren’t any scheduled standardized tests. But the schools are in “a good place right now,” he said, with neither too few nor too many assessments.“When you isolate it and break it down on an individual grade level, it’s about what it needs to be,” he said. Some warn you shouldn’t read too much into a students’ test scores. FPC’s Baxter said many of her charges who struggle with standardized tests are competent readers — if the material is engaging, and many FCAT passages are not. Many have met other graduation requirements, but their diploma hinges on whether they can pass the FCAT. And passing FCAT doesn’t necessarily mean students are prepared for higher education and careers, said Stetson’s Colwell. Colleges and employers also demand candidates who are critical thinkers, problem solvers and ethical citizens. Standardized tests can’t measure those qualities, and preparing for them shouldn’t force out other meaningful activities.“I worry that today’s children may see school as a place where you go to pass tests,” he said.